MegaVolt E-Mountain Bike Festival: A Turbo-Charged Weekend

There is a recipe to every good mountain bike event; gather a bunch of rad people, add bikes, mix in an epic trail network, and get Brett Tippie on a microphone. That’s it. You have yourself a perfect mountain bike event. The Megavolt Festival checked all these boxes with an electric twist; everyone was on e-bikes. Over three days, more than 150 e-mountain bike enthusiasts gathered in Naramata to socialize, share their passion for e-bikes, and participate in a variety of group rides, races, and challenges.

As someone who had only ridden an eMTB once before, at times, I felt like a fish out of water, hearing people discuss the different motors, battery ranges, and power outputs, using new-to-me lingo. However, at the end of the day, we were all still out there riding bikes, just going further, faster, and with less effort than we could on an analog bike.

The festival began with a beginner group ride and a casual “Shake Out” ride, both of which led into the Hill Climb Challenge. The Hill Climb Challenge consisted of a handful of riders taking on a series of highly technical rocky climbs while a crowd watched and cheered on those who had the skills to tackle the challenge. Only three riders conquered the final challenge, which was fittingly dubbed “the moto line.” This event proved that while eMTBs certainly open doors to more challenging climbing, a high degree of skill is still required to tackle technical terrain.

Some people call eMTBs cheating, but a common theme I encountered at Mega Volt is that eMTBs are simply another tool designed to tackle a different job. While there, I connected with a few community members to gather their perspectives on the growing eMTB scene.

Josh Shulman is a dad, a trail builder, and an employee at Penticton’s Freedom Bike Shop. As an avid rider, Josh owns both an eMTB and an analog bike, using them for different occasions. The eMTB is the one he reaches for when trail building, and as a dad, the eMTB is perfect for those solo rides after work. Josh also shared that “From a shop perspective, I'm starting to see a younger demographic start to buy e-bikes. You still got those holdouts that are like, ‘not until I'm 60.’ But then you got those other guys that have kids, have a life, have a busy schedule, and they're like, ‘why wouldn't I?’”

Day one of the festival concluded with pizza and beer at the festival grounds, and day two began with a pancake breakfast courtesy of the Transition Bikes crew. After everyone had finished their breakfast, the riders readied themselves for the Megavolt eMTB Fondo – a timed race on a marked course designed to test riders’ endurance and battery management. This race carried the day into the afternoon.

After a brief lunch break and battery recharge, it was time for the Trail Forks Adventure Ride, which MegaVolt claimed to be the first-ever eMTB scavenger hunt. Bikers set out to navigate the Three Blind Mice trail network and scan their timing chip at 6 checkpoints scattered throughout the network. Every checkpoint scanned gave participants extra entries into a draw prize at the end of the festival, which included a set of NOBL Wheels, a Fox 38 Fork, and a Swagman eMTB rack, among many other rad prizes!

For the Adventure Ride, I rode along with Red Bull Rampage silver medalist Georgia Astle and took a moment to ask her about the role her eMTB plays in her quiver. First, Georgia shared that the thing that she uses her eMTB for every day is “the easiest dog walk tool ever.” Secondly, she shared that her “favourite thing to do is just go out with some friends and kill the battery. Just have a huge ride and make a mission out of it. That's the ultimate e-bike dream, just being out there for hours with a crew of people.”

Additionally, Georgia introduced me to a fun phrase she had just learned at the festival: “range anxiety”. Range anxiety is a phenomenon that sets in as you watch the battery slowly decline while pushing your eMTB farther and farther into the wilderness. Georgia said, “I have my light e-bike, which is my favourite choice for being a little bit more nimble on the downs. But my battery isn't as big as a full-power e-bike. So, I'm competing my boost mode with a full power battery, and the entire time I'm going to be worried my battery is going to die.”

As day two came to an end, many riders had covered over 60 kilometres of trail throughout the Three Blind Mice Network, and still had energy to carry the festival vibes into the late evening at their campsites and hotel rooms. There were even reports of a 2 am show of the Northern Lights.

The third and final day of the festival kicked off with the MegaVolt eEnduro race, a three-stage timed race with roughly 748 metres of vertical drop over a 12 km descent. While some riders pushed their limits for a chance to stand on the podium later that day, many took a casual pace, enjoying the luxury of a curated ride on a flagged route, covering many kilometres of single track without having to stop and look at Trail Forks.

After the race concluded, the festival wrapped up with draw prizes, awards, and the MegaVolt Belt Buckle Ceremony, where every participant walked away with a MegaVolt belt buckle.

As the grounds began to clear out, I connected with BC Bike Race and MegaVolt co-founder and organizer Dre Hestler to get some insight on the inspiration behind the festival, Dre’s perspective on the place of eMTBs within the greater MTB culture, and Dre’s personal take on eMTBs.

Several years ago, Dre came around to the idea of owning an eMTB after being resistant to it for some time. Around the same time, his business partner with the BC Bike Race was getting into e-bikes, and soon they were both all-in. Realizing there was an emerging market for eMTB, they wanted to be a part of it. Dre shared that “We had this question 10 years ago from Europeans coming over to BC Bike Race, ‘Why don't you have an e-bike category?’ We're like, ‘What? E-bikes?’ Then fast forward 15 years later, we're like, yes, but not at BC Bike Race; we have to start a separate event.” MegaVolt started in 2021 as a three-day weekend with twenty-six friends. Fast forward to 2025, and the festival hosted approximately 150 riders, with plans to continue growing in the years to come.

When asking Dre about the place of eMTB in the greater MTB culture, he echoed the sentiment I heard from others: “It's just another toy in the quiver.” Furthermore, he reflected that eMTBs are not just for trail builders and retired people, “there are a lot of kids who live in Vancouver or Whistler, where the valleys are steep. They like mountain biking, but not the climbing. They're probably going to deflect over to tennis or hockey or something else. But if you can neutralize that [climbing] part of the experience for those who hate it, it's a positive. You're getting kids into the woods on two wheels.”

Finally, when asked to summarize what makes The MegaVolt special, Dre highlighted the fun vibe. MegaVolt is for everyone. You don’t need to train, and it is a safe and open place for people to ride bikes and connect with other eMTB enthusiasts. “There are no hecklers. There's nobody telling you you're cheating. If you're a new e-biker, we've got some beginner and intermediate group ride skills sessions. If you want to dabble in some races, you can come to try that out. It's super fun and affordable. We're lakeside in Naramata, it can't go wrong.”

We gratefully acknowledge that this story took place on the unceded and traditional territories of the Syilx People of the Okanagan Nation.